Letter from Manila

In recent months, Southeast Asians have run out of patience with rampant corruption. In Jakarta, protestors burned down parliament buildings and ransacked the homes of MPs guilty of graft. In Malaysia, new legislation intended to make development spending more accountable in the wake of the 1MDB scandal in which politicians blew millions of dollars on private jets, luxury yachts and plush houses in New York and London backfired spectacularly with demos in the major cities and denunciations from NGOs, student groups and trade unions.
Here in Manila, billions of dollars have been siphoned from flood control projects into the pockets of contractors and bureaucrats – eight senior members of our Department of Public Works and Highways were belatedly arrested in late November. This wouldn’t have happened without unprecedented public outcry online and off, and 550,000 of us attending nationwide rallies on 21st September. This was met with the deployment of a record 17,000 police officers, which brought unhappy memories of the days of Martial Law (1972-1981).